Prettiest darn pirate I’ve ever seen…

Buddies…

Pulling from the membership of my home church, I formed a Gospel quartet in 1996 that included two men and two women. For the first couple of years, we just provided special music for our own congregation during Sunday services. Eventually we began to branch out and were given opportunities to present concerts at other local churches.

In the summer of 2001, we were booked to sing at a church in Bethel, NC and another church in nearby Windsor, NC. This was a pretty good roadtrip at around 260 miles one way. Instead of getting up r-e-a-l-l-y early that morning to drive 4-5 hours, I decided that we would travel on Saturday and spend the night in the area so we could be fresh for Sunday. I surfed the net to find a nice place to stay and eventually settled on the King Street Bed & Breakfast, a circa 1790 Colonial-style home located in the Historic District of Windsor, NC.

When we arrived at the B&B and entered the foyer, we were warmly greeted by Susan, the innkeeper. Susan walked our group of seven around and introduced us to the house. As she finished and we were preparing to gather our luggage outside, Carmi asked playfully, “Is the house haunted?”

It was like a vacuum sucked out our collective breaths and the six remaining heads jerked in the direction of the innkeeper. Our eyes were riveted on her and you could have heard a pin drop. With a smile, she confirmed that there was indeed a ghost story associated with the house.

A lady named Mary Kimball was married to William Rhodes and the couple resided in the house, which William owned, in the mid-1800’s. In the latter part of 1850, Mary birthed twin daughters in an upper bedroom of the house. All three died during the process.

The room in which Mary died is connected to a second bedroom. “Whoever sleeps in either of those rooms,” Susan said, “is awakened around the same time every morning.” She would not tell us how patrons are made to wake up and she would not disclose the time. That was for us to find out.

One of the other couples in our group, Janet and Richard, was assigned to the room in which Mary allegedly died. Carmi and I took up residence in the adjoining room. Our room had the bathroom so I told Richard he had better give us advance warning before stumbling through in the middle of the night.

After a good nervous chuckle, we all went to bed and lay wide-eyed for a while before finally drifting off to sleep sometime after 11:00 PM.

Suddenly my eyes flew open. I was laying flat on my back with legs extended and toes pointing straight up at attention. Someone - or something - had grabbed my right big toe and was wiggling it back and forth to rouse me from my slumber.

I vividly remember kicking my foot in reflex and hitting nothing. I raised up on my elbows and quickly surveyed the room but no one else was there. I had the presence of mind to roll over and look at the digital clock on my nightstand which read 4:05 AM. The odd thing is that I did not feel scared. Carmi, on the other hand, was aggravated because it didn’t happen to HER. We talked about the experience for a few minutes and quickly went back to sleep.

We were awakened again a little later but this time it was the alarm clock. After dressing, we joined the others in our group around the well-stocked dining room table downstairs for breakfast.

Susan stepped out of the kitchen to greet us and I immediately said, “All right, Susan. Fess up. Tell us all about this ghost.”

“Well,” she started with another smile, “the spirit normally wakes visitors up around 4:00 in the morning. Usually the method is by shaking a shoulder, tugging an ear or grabbing a toe. It’s quite harmless.”

I proceeded to tell her what happened to me just a few hours earlier and she just nodded in agreement. Janet also spoke up and said she experienced something in the night herself. She said she woke up to the sensation of weight on the bed almost as if a cat had jumped up and landed between her and Richard.

Ownership of the King Street Bed & Breakfast has changed hands since we were there in 2001. I recently spoke with the new owner and he let me know real quick that he didn’t believe in ghosts or any of the stories associated with the house. He felt like the previous owners did more harm than good with their spooky tales.

Even if I were a skeptic, It would be difficult to give a rational explanation for what happened in our room that night.

We’re getting our pre-Halloween fright on tonight.

Carmi and I both have an interest in the paranormal. We don’t watch much television but one of our favorite programs is definitely a show based in the United Kingdom called Most Haunted on the Travel Channel. The crew broadcasted live last year over three nights but we missed it. They’re doing the same this year and we’re finally able to catch one show this evening.

Be sure and check back with us tomorrow because I’ll recount the story of a paranormal encounter that I experienced back in 2001.

Four years ago today - October 29, 2002 - was “Gotcha Day” or “Metcha Day” as some would prefer to call it. This was the day that Eliana was placed into our arms for the first time and would forever become a part of our family.

Looking back over the last four years, it’s amazing how one child can bring so much frustration and at the same time even more joy. She has definitely been a perfect match for the Henderson household.

We previously submitted a list of 100 things about Carmi and 100 things about Doug. In honor of this special day, I thought I would give you ‘100 things about Eliana’. Here’s a further glimpse into the personality of the ‘spicy baby’ from Hunan who turned our world upside down:

1. Eliana’s name is Hebrew.
2. It means “my God has answered”.
3. Her birthday is February 20, 2002.
4. She was born in the province of Hunan, China.
5. She was found on March 6, 2002.
6. She lived at the Shaoyang SWI for the first 8 months of her life.
7. Her Chinese name is Shao Fu Zhou.
8. She was called ‘Jo Jo’ in the orphanage.
9. She was placed in Carmi’s arms on October 29, 2002.
10. When she was handed to Carmi, Eliana was wearing 3 sets of clothing.
11. One set still had Wal-Mart tags on it.
12. We brought her home on November 9, 2002.
13. She went on a Caribbean cruise with us in December of 2002.
14. The orphanage said she liked music.
15. She always wants us to play music CDs in the car.
16. She loves to sing.
17. But not in front of people she doesn’t know.
18. She actually sings quite well.
19. She started sleeping through the night just 4 days after bringing her home.
20. She still loves her sleep.
21. She is a night owl.
22. She could sleep through a hurricane.
23. She sleeps with a night light.
24. She is quite ticklish.
25. I have to tickle her to wake her up in the mornings.
26. Her favorite color is pink.
27. She is left-handed.
28. Her favorite food is ravioli.
29. She loves to be read to.
30. She likes pirates.
31. She dressed up as a pirate for Halloween 2004.
32. She can count to 100.
33. She likes to watch The Wiggles.
34. She saw The Wiggles in concert.
35. She loves the Cheetah Girls.
36. She probably will not see the Cheetah girls in concert.
37. She likes chocolate ice cream.
38. She always wants to stir it until it becomes soup.
39. She eats one food at a time from her plate.
40. She’s good about tasting new foods.
41. She likes to blow bubbles.
42. She will not let daddy lay down with her at bedtime.
43. She likes for mommy to tell her the ‘Blackbeard’ story before going to sleep.
44. She also likes the ‘Eliana’ story about mommy and daddy going to China to bring her home.
45. She likes to help mommy cook.
46. Her favorite princess is Cinderella.
47. She has a cat named Tommi and a beta fish named Bubba.
48. She makes up funny names for her stuffed animals.
49. She talks a lot!
50. She’ll probably get in trouble for talking in public school.
51. She has a great sense of humor.
52. She has the most pleasant laugh.
53. She likes to whisper secrets in our ears.
54. She removes her shoes and socks as soon as she enters the house.
55. We call her our little Chinese hillbilly.
56. She likes the cold.
57. It’s nigh impossible for her to sit still.
58. She’s been to the dentist 3 times to have cavities filled.
59. In the dentist chair is one of the few times that she actually did sit still.
60. She always kicks the covers off in bed.
61. She likes fruit roll-ups.
62. She is good to share.
63. She is not so good to share mommy and daddy.
64. She loves small children.
65. She’ll be a great big sister.
66. She told us that she wants an older brother.
67. Her love language must be ‘physical touch’.
68. She loves to be held.
69. She prefers to play outside.
70. She loves to run.
71. Her favorite playtime activity at preschool is the monkey bars.
72. She likes to play games at playhousedisney.com
73. She loves to play in water at the pool.
74. She has been to Antigua in the West Indies with us on a mission trip.
75. One of her favorite breakfast foods is instant grits with butter.
76. She is very emotional and cries a lot.
77. She cried during a sad part in the first Cheetah Girl’s movie.
78. She didn’t want us to see her cry.
79. She likes for mommy to spray her with a little bit of perfume in the mornings.
80. She is pretty much not afraid of bugs.
81. She’s not even afraid of snakes.
82. She is taking Chinese language class.
83. She occasionally has mommy paint her fingernails and toenails.
84. She has a very good memory.
85. Her memory is quite selective.
86. She likes to shoot basketball inside with her daddy.
87. She has a southern accent that is really cute.
88. Oftentimes she will run to the phone when it rings and try to answer it before we get there.
89. She wants to high-five mommy whenever she poots on me.
90. She colors very well within the lines.
91. She always wants me to drive faster and pass cars in front of us.
92. She likes to wear jewelry like mommy.
93. She is very proud that she can snap her finger.
94. She’s wants to whistle but just hasn’t grasped it yet.
95. She likes to watch lightning out of our kitchen window.
96. She likes to go to Target.
97. Her nickname is the Little Empress.
98. Her most-oft used phrase is, “But it was an accident”.
99. She loves Pokemon.
100. She will go to China with us to bring her baby sister home.

Our adoption agency held a little meet-n-greet tonight at a home in Monroe for area families adopting from China. I believe I counted 11 families that were present who are at different stages of the process.

We did meet one couple from Locust who have the same log-in date as us (6-20-06) which means that we’ll be traveling together when our referrals come in. They look quite young but they already have 3 biological children.

Eliana met a new friend. There was another little China girl there tonight who lives in the Salisbury area and is 3-1/2. Her name is Journey and those two live wires really hit it off well. At one point, I saw them holding hands and even hugging each other. They ran and played and laughed and screamed until they were both worn out. So worn out, in fact, that Eliana fell asleep on the way home and I put her straight to bed when we arrived at the house.

Four years ago today - October 27, 2002 - Carmi and I landed in Beijing aboard United Airlines to begin the process of bringing Eliana home. As I recently pondered about that day, I wanted to give you 10 reasons why I was ready to go to China (planting tongue firmly in cheek):

10 - I wanted another deduction on my paycheck.
9 - It was far too quiet around our house.
8 - Carmi didn’t ask “Why?” nearly enough.
7 - I needed someone to watch The Wiggles with me.
6 - We needed a reason to talk about poop.
5 - There was a severe shortage of pink in the house.
4 - Carmi needed to justify a third cat.
3 - We didn’t have enough stuff in the house that was made in China.
2 - I was considering stock in Kimberly-Clark, the parent company of Huggies.
1 - There was a little girl that needed to be loved.

Every child deserves a goodnight kiss and a mom and dad to say “I love you”.

Some good friends of ours are moving away.

Ron has felt the call on his life into full-time Christian ministry for several years. He tried going to Seminary on a part-time basis for a while but the combination of his work schedule (he’s a police officer), the commute to and from school and an ambitious class schedule was just too grueling. A new son was added to the mix in the meantime so Ron’s education was ultimately placed on hold.

Recently he and Jennifer decided to relocate to the Raleigh area for Ron to re-enter Seminary and go to school full-time. We went to their house tonight so I could help Ron disassemble a few pieces of bedroom furniture and Carmi could help pack boxes.

Their leaving is bittersweet.

It’s a good move for them because Jennifer has found a great job (she’s a nurse and starts Monday) and Ron will be pursuing his passion and calling. He will eventually pastor a church and do a darn good job of it. On the flipside, we’re losing our closest buds. I’m never crazy about change so this whole scenario sucks and makes me sad. Our cats will be sad because Ron and Jennifer always watched them for us when we went out of town. Eliana will be sad because she loved Samuel as though he were her own little brother.

Excuse me while I go and make them feel guilty…

This journal offers a peek inside the Henderson home where you'll find two Little Empresses. Eliana stole our hearts on October 29, 2002 and Karys forever became a part of our family on September 17, 2007. Is a Little Emperor in the future?